I want to Build my Own Pc but I Need A LOT of Help

[JrRacinFan]

A few things if you do buy used:
Buy an MSI board or buy a new board(not open box asus); in case if anything goes wrong with the motherboard. I beleive they still do RMA's through the serial no.(because they have manuf date in the serial) and not the model # + proof of purchase.

Do NOT buy a used power supply.

RAM; make sure you have your seller memtest them for at least 5 passes to make sure they are still good and functional.

Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, L...

Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, L...

Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, L...

I also suggest not getting 12GB and to try out 6GB first and foremost.

 

[Josh154]

What Jr just listed would also be a great choice. Add your OS and a BD and it's more than 500 off of what you originally listed.

Id definitely agree with what he said about buying used PSU's and mobo's also. That's the only thing im skeptical about anymore and i would like to buy new mobo's for warranty purposes but i just can't afford it right now

 

[Blaiyan]

I just wanted to make a little update. So I had two plans and surprise surprise nothing worked out exactly how I wanted and both fell through money wise. No big deal I just have to stick to my initial plan. I should hopefully be ready to start in May. So let's see...

I got the Asus Rampage III Formula instead of the gigabyte ud5. I know it was recommended but I just really liked the spacing on the asus board better. The UD5 would've had one extra pci-e 2.0 slot but it would've been of no use since the graphics card would've covered it up.

I was all set to get the g.skills ripjaw (2 x4GB) ram but i'm having trouble finding if that is compatible with my board. I know about Crucial but their site would be better if it could cover all the ram currently available from more than two brands. Anyway i'm supposed to buy the hyper 212 cpu cooler and this ram in a couple days but the ram keeps going out of stock quickly.

I got the haf-932 cooler master case with 5 blue led fans. I kind of think I should've gotten the haf x with all black insides but I like my choice. Also bought a lg blu-ray burner.

For some ridiculous reason I bought the corsair ax-1200 psu. I could've just gotten the 850w and saved $100. I don't know. I just thought I should have more than enough power for whatever.

Next month I buy the processor. I was settled on the i7-950 but as you know the priced dropped on the 960. It's $30 more for only .2ghz. I'm still settled on the 950 because the 970 will likely be $300 by this time next year and i'm going to buy that as my final processor upgrade for this pc. Plus the 950 comes with two free game coupons.

After some struggling on a decision I'm staying with the plan to get the twp evga gtx 460's even though the 560 Ti's almost had me changing my mind. I'll get one in May and other for SLI in June and probably a $40 memory card reader.

Cut the HDD to 500gb for c drive. The only thing that I plan to save to the c dirve is installed software. As I have a tendency to restore to factory settings a lot. I considered the SSD drives but they are overly expensive to me and I heard they don't last long. Anyhow I looked at the 10,000 rpm velociraptor WD drives. If it wasn't $100 extra (plus 200 less gigs though not even needed) I might have considered them. I watched vids saying that they're really fast if you get two and put them in Raid-0 but I just want to know if that would somehow improve recording video to your hard drive? Speaking of, I recently spent about 48 hours trying to figure out how to clone a drive on my mother's old hard drive. Software didn't work and I didn't understand partitions. I thought she had a 15gb hard drive lol. And was super worried when I took out a drive and the pc was still showing a c and d drive lol. Anyway finally figured that out.

I'm taking you guys advice and now i'm not getting the windows seven ultimate full version. I'm getting windows 7 professional oem. No sense it spending extra money and not being able to use the software on more than one pc.

 

[Blaiyan]

I know it's annoying to revive old threads but this will be my last update. I finished building my PC and everything is running great. I just want to give finals thanks to all those who helped me out here. Thanks You.

Here are the final parts I settled on.

Intel Core i7-960 Bloomfield 3.2ghz (leveled up to 3.6ghz)
LG Black 10x Blu-ray Burner
Cooler Master Haf 932 Blue LED (full tower case)
Corsair AX1200 Modular PSU
G.Skills Ripjaw (2 x 4GB) ram (auto 1066 now 1200 with level up)(can't do 1600)
Hyper 212 Plus (cooler) feels a little loose but work really well.
Asus Rampage III Formula (motherboard)
Logitech MK550 (Keyboard & Mouse)
Artic Silver 5 (thermal paste)
Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB HDD
Windows 7 Ultimate (retail)
EVGA 01G-P3-1561-AR GeForce GTX 560 Ti FPB (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit (used evga precision to bump the shader clock to 1800 from 1700 but the effective memory clock only goes to 2500 but newegg says is supposed to be 4100. Is something wrong or is it normal for it to only be half?)


Of course I'll be adding a lot more to my pc over time (next month a card reader and or capture card) and swapping out parts but this is great for now. I couldn't even run nba 2k9 without stuttering on the lowest settings on my old pc but now it's smooth. I'm going to try forcing higher image quality with control panel.

 

[InnocentCriminal]

Don't forget to fill in your System Specifications now you're done.

 

[Crap Daddy]

The memory is DDR which stands for double data rate so it should be double of what you see in Evga precision. What about core clock, you didn't push that also?

 

[The Von Matrices]

I wouldn't buy from Amazon, personally. You're in the States, so I'd reccommend Newegg.

Why not Amazon? I've bought many parts from them in the past, most recently a P8P67 Pro motherboard, and I am very happy with their service. Plus, they were cheaper than Newegg.

 

[lilhasselhoffer]

Why not Amazon? I've bought many parts from them in the past, most recently a P8P67 Pro motherboard, and I am very happy with their service. Plus, they were cheaper than Newegg.

Return policy, ease of finding parts, and customer service. Newegg has all three of these things down and right, where amazon is towing the line between acceptable and crap in each of these categories.

Additionally, Amazon does not exclusively deal in computer hardware. Newegg does, and generally understands that what you need is a quick response. This translates to cross-shipping for parts, and a fast RMA process.

The first time something needs replaced you'll spend more on Amazon than you saved. Newegg might be slightly more expensive on some products, but an investment of several thousand dollars deserves an extra 20-40 for the security that Newegg provides.

Put concisely; Newegg or Tigerdirect are the only two places you should deal with (barring a local Fry's) when building a PC. Amazon is fine for some things, but is a headache for PC building.

 

[The Von Matrices]

Return policy, ease of finding parts, and customer service. Newegg has all three of these things down and right, where amazon is towing the line between acceptable and crap in each of these categories.

Additionally, Amazon does not exclusively deal in computer hardware. Newegg does, and generally understands that what you need is a quick response. This translates to cross-shipping for parts, and a fast RMA process.

The first time something needs replaced you'll spend more on Amazon than you saved. Newegg might be slightly more expensive on some products, but an investment of several thousand dollars deserves an extra 20-40 for the security that Newegg provides.

Put concisely; Newegg or Tigerdirect are the only two places you should deal with (barring a local Fry's) when building a PC. Amazon is fine for some things, but is a headache for PC building.

I agree with the quick response, but how did you get Newegg to cross-ship? They have explicitly stated to me that cross-shipping is not part of their return process a few times I had to RMA something. They even once sent me the wrong motherboard (in 2008), and I contacted them to get them to replace it with the correct one. They refused to cross-ship it to me even when I suggested that they could charge the second board to me while it was in transit; the service rep told me that the only way I could do cross shipping is if I returned the wrong motherboard the standard way and took the 15% restocking fee.

In all honesty, the retailer only matters for the first month. After 30 days at most sites, including Newegg, you have to go through the manufacturer to initiate the RMA, and thats hit or miss with regards to the quality of service.

 

[LordJummy]

Just so you know, it would be cheaper to buy the 970 now than to buy a 950 then upgrade to 970 for $300 ish later. It will come out to the same amount or more than for a 970 now. I have a 950 and 970, and trust me the 970 is worth the extra money if you'll actually be using it.